All Events

The Massachusetts ADRC is an active supporter of the Alzheimer's Association's (MA & NH chapters) Greater Boston Walk to End Alzheimer's fundraising event. For several years, our Center's director, Dr. Bradley T. Hyman, has served as the Honorary Medical Chair of this successful event.

According to the Alzheimer's Association, the Memory Walk is the nation's largest event to raise awareness and funds for Alzheimer's care, support and research. Since 1989, the Walk has raised more than $347million for the cause.

A networking cocktail & dinner event will be held at The State Room, 60 State Street, 3rd floor, Boston, MA 02109 on the evening of Friday, July 29, 2011. For more information regarding the event, please see the attached flyer.

This annual free event is sponsored by Partners HealthCare, the parent organization of the Massachusetts ADRC, and WHDH & CW 56 stations. Fun and educational programs including exhibits, health-screenings, presentations by health experts and local celebrities will entertain and inform both adults and kids.

The 2-day event will be held at the John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center (900 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02115).

The Alzheimer's Association's annual advocacy forum will be held at the Omni Shoreham Hotel (2500 Calvert Street NW, Washington, DC 20008) from May 15-17, 2011. The popular annual event provides advocates with opportunities to speak to legislators on a variety of pressing issues related to funding for Alzheimer's disease research.

More information regarding registration and the program in general may be found at www.alz.org/forum/

Sponsored by the Brookline Council on Aging, Goddard House and the LGBT Aging Project, this is an award-winning documentary that follows six Boston-area LGBT older adults over the course of a year as they deal with the challenges of aging and being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.

A question-and-answer session with the filmmaker and director, Stu Maddux, and local cast members will follow the film screening.

Tickets are $10 each, and the screening will be held at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard Street, Brookline, MA 02446.

Announcements

The Massachusetts LIfe Sciences Center (www.masslifesciences.com) has announced a grant program that seeks to increase industry-sponsored research and facilitate access to scientific discoveries and inventions that will lead to beneficial medical applications.

The Massachusetts ADRC and the Harvard NeuroDiscovery Center have joined forces to fund the best novel ideas for pilot projects aimed at understanding and developing treatments for neurodegenerative diseases. Together, we are pleased to announce a joint call for pilot study applications from investigators within the Harvard community. Grants with a dollar value up to $30,000 (direct costs) will be awarded for the duration of one-year. A total of $180,000 is available.

The Charles A. King Trust will award two-year grants in the basic science and clinical/health services research beginning on July 1, 2011. This grant is only available for researchers at Massachusetts institutions.

The funding period will be from July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2013, and fellowships will range from $43,500 - $51,000 annually, which is inclusive of a $2,000 expense allowance.

More information on eligibility, application guidelines and terms of the award are attached.

The objective of The Ellison Medical Foundation (www.ellisonfoundation.org) New Scholars Program is to support new investigators of outstanding promise in the basic biological sciences relevant to understanding lifespan development processes and age-related diseases and disabilities. The award is intended to provide significant support to new investigators needed to permit them to become established in the field of aging.

A partnership program between the American Federation for Aging Research, the Roslinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation, and the Diane and Guildford Glazer Foundation is announcing the New Investigator Awards in Alzheimer's Disease to support junior investigators in the US and Israel to pursue research and academic careers in the neurosciences.

Projects in basic and translational research related to Alzheimer's disease, and those that focus on healthy brain aging are especially encouraged.

Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), the founders of Partners HealthCare, have again ranked among the nation's top hospitals on the U.S. News & World Report annual Honor Roll of America's Best Hospitals. MGH ranked third nationally, while BWH ranked eleventh. This achievement makes Boston the only city in the United States with two hospitals on the Honor Roll. In all, four Partners HealthCare hospitals earned high rankings in the report.

Scientists at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease 2010 (AAICAD 2010) today presented the first draft reports from three workgroups convened by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the Alzheimer's Association to update the diagnostic criteria for Alzheimer's disease for the first time in 25 years.

A new joint research grants program in the basic neuroscience to support collaborative research in the Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) communities has just been announced by the Harvard NeuroDiscovery Center. Applications covering the spectrum of basic neuroscience research will be considered.

Boston Med picks up where the Peabody Award-winning Hopkins left off, going even deeper into the lives of caregivers and the cutting edge medical cases they confront inside the walls of America's top hospitals. In this original eight-hour series, the unforgettable stories of doctors, nurses and patients are adeptly woven to give each hour the pace and intensity of a drama.

Volunteers are being sought for a clinical study examining the subtle changes that may take place in the brains of older people many years before overt symptoms of Alzheimer's disease appear. Researchers are looking for people with the very earliest complaints of memory problems that affect their daily activities. The study will follow participants over time, using imaging techniques developed to advance research into changes taking place in the structure and function of the living brain, as well as biomarker measures found in blood and cerebrospinal fluid.